China E-ventions
Patent News from the Middle Kingdom
Vol. 3 , No. 5 - May 8, 2003
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- 2002 Patent Applications in China
- Protection of Patents to be Strengthened
- Japan Renews Request for China to Improve Trade Practices
- China - A Trophy Market for Mobile Phone Companies
- China Aims to Close its Technology Gap with Korea and Japan
Personalizing Patents in 2003 In this edition we profile Richard Wageman. Richard heads our Intellectual Property Division. Having extensive experience in both his native Canada and now in China, Richard brings a wealth of legal experience to the Department. Beginning legal practice in British Columbia, Richard was a partner at his prior firm before he and his family moved to China several years ago. Dealing with some of the world's leading multinationals and their intellectual property interests here in China, Richard has been involved in a myriad of intellectual property issues, including patent, trademark and copyright. | Please get in touch at:rwageman@lehmanlaw.com | | | |
2002 Patent Applications in China
According to preliminary statistics released by the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), 2002 witnessed the continuous increase in patent applications in China. The SIPO received a total of 252,632 patent applications, an increase of 24% over 2001. Of the patent applications, 80,233 were for inventions, 93,139 were for utility models, and 79,260 were for industrial designs. Of the total number of patent applications, 205,396 were domestic applications (an increase of 24%), while 47,236 were foreign applications (marking an increase of 25%).
The top ten foreign countries or territories filing patent applications in China and the corresponding number of applications were Japan with 18,275 applications (an increase of 33% over the amount filed in 2001), the United States with 10,012 applications (an increase of 11.3% over the amount file in 2001), Germany with 4011 applications (an increase of 16.1% over the amount filed in 2001), Republic of Korea with 3626 applications (an increase of 45.2% over the amount filed in 2001), the Netherlands with 2148 applications (an increase of 53.8% over the amount filed in 2001), France with 1931 applications (an increase of 27% over the amount filed in 2001), Switzerland with 1110 applications (an increase of 8.8% over the amount filed in 2001), the United Kingdom with 1023 applications (an increase of 12% over the amount filed in 2001), Sweden with 952 applications (a decrease of 1.6% over the amount filed in 2001), and Italy with 627 applications (an increase of 26.7% over the amount filed in 2001).
The top ten provinces and municipalities in filing domestic patent applications and the increasing percentage in China were Guangdong 34,339 (an increase of 24.4%), Shanghai 19,963 (an increase of 56.3%), Zhejiang 17,261 (an increase of 34.6%), Taiwan 16,165 (an increase of 7.2%), Beijing 13,808 (an increase of 13.6%), Jiangsu 13,071 (an increase of 26.3%), Shandong 12,855 (an increase of 15.1%), Liaoning 9,848 (an increase of 31%), Shenzhen 7,679 (an increase of 27.3%) and Guangzhou 6,819 (an increase of 13.5%).
LEHMAN, LEE & XU OPENS SHENZHEN OFFICE Lehman, Lee & Xu is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Please direct all inquiries to attorney Zdravko Jelic at | |
Protection of Patents to be Strengthened
According to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), Patent protection will be strengthened this year to spur the development of cutting-edge technology in China.
Tian Lipu, vice-commissioner with SIPO, said the focus would be on increasing the amount of technological innovation through better protection for scientists.
Patent protection is linked with 12 key scientific projects launched last year by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Tian said. These projects cover information security, computer software, electronic motor vehicles and other programs.
SIPO has also launched patent protection programs in large firms in 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, said Tian. It will continue to supervise patent systems in these regions.
Later this year, the SIPO will implement a computerized online patent application system, replacing the previous paper-based manual work.
Tian said the country's intellectual property system has made some remarkable achievements over the past few years.
Since China implemented the Patent Law in 1985, SIPO has received more than 1.62 million patent applications. Domestic applications account for 83% of applications lodged, while foreign applications comprising 17%, according to the latest SIPO statistics.
A total of 116 countries or regions have registered patent protection applications in China. Japan had applied for the greatest number of patents in China last year, followed by the United States, Germany, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Britain, Sweden and Italy.
Sources from the State Administration of Industry and Commerce said there were a record 370,000 trademark applications last year - up 37% on 2001.
The Chinese Government launched anti-piracy campaigns in 1995. Copyright administrations across the country seized nearly 197 million pirated products from 1995 to 2002, statistics from the National Copyright Administration have revealed.
The People's High Courts and Intermediate People's Courts in most provinces and municipalities have set up intellectual property trial courts to enhance enforcement of IPR protection, sources from the National Copyright Administration said.
(Source: China Daily)
Japan Renews Request for China to Improve Trade Practices
Japan reiterated its demand for China to improve its trade practices in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, an official with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said.
In Vice-Ministerial level talks in Tokyo, Japan called on China to speed up its assessment procedures for advanced technologies, such as DVDs, so that Japanese firms that have been waiting for years for their applications to be approved can establish their intellectual property rights, the official said.
In responses the Chinese delegation said that the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) is trying to streamline these procedures by introducing information technology and improving domestic legislation, but maintained it would still be some time before it reaches the same level as Japan, the official said.
Tokyo also urged China to make further efforts to crack down on imitation products by imposing stiffer penalties on offenders, he said.
On the other hand, China expressed concern over a recently introduced METI guideline preventing the outflow of technologies from Japan, saying it could hinder China's attempts to introduce new technologies, the official said.
This is the ninth meeting since Tokyo and Beijing started the working-level trade talks in 1990 in a bid to boost dialogue and prevent conflicts that may occur between them.
(Source: Japan Economic Newswire)
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China - A Trophy Market for Mobile Phone Companies
Mobile communications companies may be still searching for that elusive "killer application" to lift the industry on to its next escalator. And yet for many the search is not about an application any more, but about a market for existing products. For most mobile companies, that market is China. But attractive as millions of Chinese mobile users are, the move to next generation services will involve European suppliers in local partnerships and difficult standards decisions.
Last month, Nokia took the unprecedented step of forming a technology partnership with local Chinese supplier Huawei Technologies, in a bid to strengthen its 3G mobile infrastructure business in the region.
Significantly, that deal included a technology cross-licensing agreement on wideband (W)-CDMA-related patents covering the manufacturing and sales of 3G infrastructure in China. This highlights a crucial point. European and US companies have recognised the need to align themselves with key local companies, even if this means sharing technology, if they are to succeed in China.
"This kind of agreement represents an important beginning of a process to make state of the art technologies available to more and more domestic manufacturers," points out David Ho, Vice President of Nokia Networks in China.
Huawei is not simply in the game of using European technology. It has intellectual property rights (IPR) related to W-CDMA of its own, which the company is looking to develop itself and with partners. "While building up our own IPR basis, Huawei is also keen on IPR-related cooperation with world leading manufacturers like Nokia," points out Xu Zhijun, Vice President of Huawei Technologies.
Nokia and its local partner Huawei are, not surprisingly, putting their weight behind European wideband (W)-CDMA technology.
However, WCDMA is only one of three approved 3G standards being deployed in China. TD-SCDMA is the locally proposed and developed alternative being adopted by a growing number of Chinese operators.
Philips Electronics and Samsung are two firms supporting the development of silicon and technology for the fledgling Chinese TD-SCDMA standard.
Both are involved in a venture with local mobile company Datang Mobile Communications. STMicroelectronics recently licensed TD-SDCMA technology from Datang Mobile.
However, production of the first commercial TD-SCDMA handsets is not expected until 2004.
(Source: Electronics Weekly)
China Aims to Close its Technology Gap with Korea and Japan
Wang Chuanfu is a little sleepy these days. The 37-year-old Chinese engineer has been jetting back and forth to the U.S., courting investors in Byd Co. This company, which Wang founded just seven years ago in Shenzhen to make cell-phone batteries, now employs 17,000 workers and has a market capitalization of US$1 billion.
That's not the story Wang is selling, however. Byd aims to be the world's first major producer of cars powered by electric batteries. It's an attractive idea, but one so beset with challenges that most auto giants have given it up. ''So many companies have failed because they didn't have the right technology,'' says Wang. ''But we have the strongest R&D team in the industry. We have a deeper understanding.''
Drawing on human and financial resources scattered across Asia and the West, China wants to reinvent itself as the home of innovation -- and wellspring of technical standards that will be adopted throughout the world. Already a production hub for PCs, televisions, and DVD players, the country now yearns to close its technology gap with Korea and Japan. It aims to achieve this by 2008, when Beijing hosts the Olympics.
To raise their stature in global high tech, the Chinese are pursuing a potentially risky strategy. The government is offering subsidies and other sweeteners to companies that come up with homegrown alternatives to Microsoft software, Intel microprocessors, Cisco routers, and other standards that are the building blocks of an information economy. The twin risks are that China will alienate the multinationals it depends on for technology transfer while its focus on originality distracts local companies from the low-cost manufacturing they do best. Nonetheless, in a drive to reduce royalty payments on foreign technology and reward local innovators, Beijing seems intent on setting global standards for everything from digital TVs and DVD players to next-generation cell phones.
If China succeeds in launching important new standards, many secondary benefits would flow. For example, such technology leadership would likely spur the growth of semiconductor design businesses, which typically enjoy higher profit margins than the contract chip-manufacturing facilities China has built so far. The standards-and-design synergy is real: Beijing plans to endorse a new digital-TV standard, and the government-owned Shenzhen State Microelectronics Co. is already working on a circuit design for the new set-top boxes.
China's chip-design companies are still tiny players on the world stage. But last year, Beijing began setting up seven design hubs around the country that will provide startups with financial support.
Many factors could inhibit China's efforts to become a technology pioneer, including the absence of mature capital markets and almost no brand recognition for any of its products outside China.
China's shortcomings bring relief to other Asian nations. As much as Korea and Japan count on China as a manufacturing base and a market, they have no desire to compete with it in the upper reaches of electronics, software, and emerging fields such as nanotechnology. Ironically, their struggles to stay a few steps ahead of the giant are bound to inspire China's best minds to reach even higher. The inventions, technical standards, and scientific ideas that emerge from this arms race of innovation will inevitably reorder the corporate hierarchies within Asia's borders -- and beyond.
(Source: Business Week)
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China E-ventions is intended to be used for news purposes only. It should not be taken as comprehensive legal advice, and Lehman, Lee & Xu will not be held responsible for any such reliance on its contents.
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